Development
| “ | Let there be built great ships which can cast upon a beach, in any weather, large numbers of the heaviest tanks. | ” |
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—Winston Churchill, Memo to War Department, 1940 |
Although the Royal Navy had built and used powered lighters to land horses and men during the ill-fated Gallipoli Campaign of World War I, the invention of the tank meant that a specialized landing craft would be needed. In 1926, the first Motor Landing Craft (MLC1) was built by the Royal Navy. It weighed 16 tons, with a draught of 6 feet 6 inches (1.98 m), and was capable of about 6 knots (11 km/h; 6.9 mph). It was later developed into the Landing Craft Mechanised.
However, it was at the insistence of the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill that the LCT was created. In mid-1940, he demanded an amphibious vessel capable of landing at least three 36-ton heavy tanks directly onto a beach, able to sustain itself at sea for at least a week, and inexpensive and easy to build. Admiral Maund, Director of the Inter-Service Training and Development Centre (which had developed the Landing Craft Assault), gave the job to naval architect Robert Baker, who within three days completed initial drawings for a 152-foot (46 m) landing craft with a 29-foot (8.8 m) beam and a shallow draft. Ship builders Fairfields and John Brown agreed to work out details for the design under the guidance of the Admiralty Experimental Works at Haslar. Tank tests with models soon determined the characteristics of the craft, indicating that it would make 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) on engines delivering about 700 hp (520 kW). Designated the LCT Mark 1, 20 were ordered in July 1940 and a further 10 in October 1940.
Read more about this topic: Landing Craft Tank
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—Gail Sheehy (20th century)
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